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Student and Donor
Roland Pease

"The Cambridge Center for Adult Education is my school. It's your school as well. No entrance exams required. A whole world of learning to choose from. A treat to behold. The course selection is beyond belief. Something for everyone. If you don't partake it is your loss. Learn to play pool underwater, teach your kitten to cook…

I took my first classes at the Cambridge Center back in the early 1970s: three poetry workshops with Gail Mazur, back to back to back, and I haven't stopped writing poems since. Gail encouraged me, and that was of enormous value. Throughout the years I have taken a number of classes, the most notable: a Meditation class, and a Dream workshop, both extremely instructive, enlightening. Some other classes I took -- the Harmonica (Charlie Musselwhite need not fear me), art (I learned my talents lay elsewhere, that I'm at my best looking at art created by others), Yoga (I don't bend well), were well taught, but this student was sorely lacking. Oh, yes, there was some sort of food class which I really shouldn't have signed up for. I'm mostly a meat and potato guy all the way.

When I began my literary press, Zoland Books, in 1986, I was in touch with the Cambridge Center's instructor on publishing—he helped me get the press off the ground. And now, in 2013/2014, I am taking my fourth playwriting class in a row with Peter Littlefield, and I have signed up for another. Though I don't expect to be the next Harold Pinter, I have the drive to give him a run for his money. And if anyone could inspire me to write bigger and better plays, Peter is the one to do it.

One of the benefits of taking courses at the Center is there is no pressure to succeed. No exams. No degrees. You can delve deep if you want. The instructors are there to take you as far as you wish to go. Most of the students I've come across are highly motivated, and that often adds another exciting element to the classes. They are in attendance because they sincerely want to learn. Full of questions and answers to boot. Another strong suit is the intelligence of the instructors. If you have half a brain you will learn from them. I find the classrooms at the Center to my liking. No two are the same. I have favorites, but all of them have a character that's hard to find these days.

Like I said: it is my school, the only one I have attended which I still support. That says something, doesn't it? About me, and about the Center."

Roland Pease has lived in Cambridge since the mid-1960s. He is the poetry and fiction editor at Steerforth Press.